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ReForest London Newsletter

Remembering Richard Ivey

Submitted on Thu, 13/02/2020 - 18:07

ReForest London joined many individuals and organizations last week to honour and celebrate the life of Mr. Richard Ivey, an incredible Londoner and philanthropist.

Over the course of his life, Mr. Ivey donated over $100 million to various causes across Canada, many of them environmental. The Iveys were among our organization's earliest supporters, and Beryl was the first member of the ReForest London's founders club. When Beryl passed in 2007, she created, through her estate, an endowment fund which has continued to support our work, year over year.

More recently, Richard kickstarted investment in the new Westminster Ponds Centre for Environment & Sustainability (westminsterpondscentre.ca) by providing funding for a new geothermal heating system to replace the original propane boilers, without which, the buildings simply would have cost too much to operate. Without his initial vote of confidence, it is unlikely we would have been able to take on the Westminster Ponds Centre project and preserve the property's four historic buildings. We owe them a great debt.

Richard & Beryl always shared a vision of a better world, and their legacy of caring and community will grow for years to come.